Guests at cocktail parties often stand while eating. In such cases, they frequently hold a plate of food in one hand and a beverage container in the other hand. This creates a problem in trying to transfer food from the plate to one's mouth using the hand that is holding the beverage container. There is also difficulty in trying to support both the plate and beverage container by a single hand while using the other hand to transfer the food to one's mouth. Similar situations occur at other types of parties, and at picnics, barbeques, and sporting events, in fast food restaurants, cafeterias, airports, and other venues where food and beverage are served. The difficulty of trying to support a food holding receptacle and a beverage container simultaneously either while eating or while carrying the food and beverage represents a long-standing problem and the problem continues to the present day.
This problem of trying to comfortably hold a plate of food and a beverage container in a stand-up dining situation has been the subject of many patented inventions. Each of these prior art inventions suffers from one deficiency or another that, apparently, has prevented the widespread adoption of any one of those inventions.
There are two general approaches in the prior art to simultaneously supporting a food holding receptacle and a beverage container by a single hand. In the first general approach the beverage container is held in one hand and a plate or other food holding receptacle is supported on or by the beverage container. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,938,373 issued to McKee describes a plate that is supportable on a beverage container. The plate is similar to a regular plate, but the base of the plate has an upwardly protruding annular, hollow ridge. The cross section of the ridge resembles an inverted “V”. Accordingly, the ridge has a hollow, upward facing, annular cavity on its undersurface. The upper part (rim) of a beverage container such as a glass or a paper cup is press fit into the cavity of the inverted “V” allowing the plate to be supported on the beverage container. The plate described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,938,373 is not stably supportable on beverage containers of a wide variety of shapes and sizes; it is stably mountable only on those beverage containers with upper diameter (rim) dimensions that match the annular cavity dimensions.
In another variation of this general approach (U.S. Pat. No. 5,695,052 issued to Damato) the base of the plate contains a radially scored section. The beverage container is forced downward through the scored region of the plate creating a cavity in the plate that encircles the beverage container. The plate is held on the beverage container by the force-fit between the two components. In this approach the beverage container, with the supported plate, is held in one of the user's hands, leaving the user's other hand free to remove items of food from the plate. There are several problems with this approach including the difficulty of removing the plate from, and replacing the plate on, the beverage container without spilling some of the beverage or tossing food items from the plate. This is especially true considering that the plate must generally be repetitively mounted on and demounted from the beverage container in a dining situation.
In another variation of this approach (U.S. Pat. No. 6,138,860 issued to Comeaux), a plate sits directly on top of a drinking glass. The underside of the plate has a non-slip surface to hinder the plate from sliding off the glass. In this case the user holds the beverage container in one hand, while the plate is supported by the beverage container. This invention suffers from several disadvantages. For example, if another person bumped into the diner, the plate could be easily knocked off the beverage container. Such a design would be even less satisfactory for use with certain beverage containers such as bottles.
In still another variation of this approach, exemplified by U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,954,195; 5,984,131 and 6,360,885 all issued to Krueger and Perez; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,425,480 issued to Krueger, Perez and Jansson the base of the food holding receptacle contains an upwardly protruding hollow hub that is attached to the base of the plate. The food holding receptacle is pressed onto the upper portion of the beverage container; the beverage container enters the hub from below the plate, through a hole in the base of the plate, until the hub snugly surrounds part of the upper portion of the beverage container. The user holds the beverage container in one hand with the plate supported by the beverage container. This leaves the user's other hand free to pick food items from the plate or for greeting other people. The inventions using this approach as described in the above-cited prior art patents suffer from the disadvantage that different hub shapes are required for beverage containers of different shapes and sizes. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,954,195 describes several embodiments of such a plate, each with a differently shaped hub to snugly fit part of the outer surface of different beverage containers. The plate is mounted on a beverage container by pressing the plate onto a top portion of the beverage container. One of these embodiments has a hub with an interior section that matches exactly the outer surface of a conventional beverage can; that embodiment is designed to be supported on a conventional beverage can.
Another embodiment shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,954,195 is designed to be supported on frusto-conical shaped beverage containers such as those in the shape of the commonly used paper or plastic disposable cups. Another embodiment shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,954,195 is designed to be supported on a particular shaped bottle. The snug-fitting, or tight fitting, relationship between the food holding receptacles and the beverage containers in U.S. Pat. No. 5,954,195 hinders the facile mounting of the food-containing receptacle on a beverage container and also hinders the removal of the receptacle from a beverage container. Repetitive and facile mounting and demounting of a receptacle is important for a food holding receptacle that is mountable on a beverage container and intended for use in a dining situation such as a cocktail party.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,984,131 describes a food holding receptacle in the form of a plate-lid that is designed for mounting on a beverage container with an upper portion of specific dimensions. U.S. Pat. No. 6,360,885 describes a food holding receptacle that is mountable on frusto-conical cups of different sizes. U.S. Pat. No. 6,425,480 discloses plates each requiring a differently shaped hub for use with bottles of different shapes. In each of the Krueger et al. patents described above the inner surface of the hub is designed to be complementary in shape to part of the outer surface of a specific beverage container in a manner that the hub snugly surrounds part of the beverage container. Such receptacles, if commercialized, would require the availability of several receptacles with hubs of different interior shapes and dimensions to accommodate different beverage containers such as bottles, cans, stemware glasses, and so on. The need for multiple food holding receptacles with hubs of different dimensions to accommodate beverage containers of different shapes and sizes represents a significant obstacle to the widespread commercialization of these receptacles and would generate consumer hesitance in purchasing them.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,060,820 issued to Boerner has a downwardly extending member or members on the underside of the base of a plate. This member extends essentially perpendicular to the base of the plate and lies alongside the outer wall of a beverage container upon which the plate is supported. The user simultaneously grasps the extending member and the beverage container by a single hand and thereby supports both the plate and the beverage container. In an alternative embodiment of the Boerner invention the downwardly extending member is in the form of a cylindrical arc that extends around more than half the circumference of a cup with a handle, thereby directly supporting the plate; in this case the user does not grasp the extending member but holds the cup by its handle, with the plate supported on the cup. Mounting Boerner's plate on a beverage container requires coordinating the position of the downwardly extending member or members with the position of the users hand relative to the beverage container or the position of a cup handle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,662,240 issued to Norris comprises a plate having handles in the form of loop-shaped members extending downwardly from the underside of the plate. The plate is placed on top of a beverage container that is held in a user's hand, and the plate is gripped by the user placing a finger and a thumb from the hand that is holding the beverage container through the loops. Mounting of such a plate on a beverage container requires proper orientation of the plate relative to the fingers of a user who is holding the beverage container; this attention to the relative orientation of the plate combined with the need to insert fingers into loop shaped members renders the repetitive mounting and demounting of such a plate cumbersome.
Other approaches to mounting a plate or similar receptacle on a beverage container are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,058,737; 5,176,283; 5,240,136; and 5,292,028 all issued to Patterson and Patterson; U.S. Pat. No. 5,180,079 issued to Jeng; U.S. Pat. No. 5,732,847 issued to Caldi; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,427,864 issued to Asselin.
The second general approach to simultaneously supporting a food holding receptacle and a beverage container by a single hand involves holding the receptacle in one hand with the beverage container supported on or by the receptacle. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,207,743 issued to Costarella and Shohara describes a plate containing a downwardly extending hollow tubular section. The beverage container is mounted on the plate by inserting the beverage container into the hollow section. The beverage container rests on the side walls of the hollow section. The user holds the outer wall of the tubular section in one hand with the beverage container supported on the plate. This plate is not designed for supporting beverage containers of a wide variety of shapes and sizes. While the plate is capable of holding beverage containers with lower portions that are roughly frusto-conical in shape, some parallel-sided vessels such as many cups, bottles, cans and glasses will simply slip through the hollow tubular section.
In another variation of this approach (U.S. Pat. No. 5,249,700 issued to Dumke) the base of the plate contains a hole in the center surrounded by an upwardly-protruding frusto-conical lip. The beverage container is inserted in the hole from above the plate and rests on the perimeter of the hole. The plate, with the beverage container supported thereon, is held in one of the user's hands, leaving the user's other hand free to remove items of food from the plate. There are several problems with this approach including its unsuitability for use with some beverage containers that are not frusto-conical in shape.
In still another variation of this approach exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 5,346,070 issued to McSpadden the base of a tray has a section containing a substantially cup-like depression. The beverage container is mounted on the plate by placing the bottom portion of the container into the cup-like depression from above. The beverage container rests inside the cup-like depression. The bottom of the cup-like depression may be removable to facilitate taller (frusto-conical) cups, in which case the container protrudes from the underside of the depression. The user holds the outer wall of the cup-like depression in one hand while the plate is resting on part of that hand and wrist. This leaves the user's other hand free to pick food items from the tray or for other activities. This approach suffers from the disadvantage that many types of beverage containers cannot be stably and comfortably supported on or by the tray.
Other approaches to supporting a beverage container on or by a plate or similar receptacle are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,234,125 issued to Roberts; U.S. Pat. No. 5,259,528 issued to Pace and Girovich; U.S. Pat. No. 5,361,932 issued to Friedrich; U.S. Pat. No. 5,421,459 issued to Mazzotti; and U.S. Pat. No. D211,532 issued to Ashton. The plate disclosed by McKee in U.S. Pat. No. 4,938,373 (described above) is also capable of supporting a beverage container.
In addition to the prior art found in patents, there have been and are several items on the market for addressing the problem of supporting a plate and a beverage container simultaneously while dining. In particular, plates variously referred to as party plates, cocktail plates or buffet plates are available for holding stemware. Some of these commercial products are occasionally seen at buffet functions and can be found in specialty stores. However, none of these commercial products has gained widespread acceptance. Most stand-up dining events do not use such plates, and these plates are generally not found in supermarkets and department stores.
A major deficiency in all of the inventions embodied in the above-cited patents and commercial products is that none of them is universally applicable to a wide variety of beverage containers of different shapes and sizes. In particular, no single prior art plate for addressing the problem at hand is suitable for effective use with bottles, cans, stemware glasses, non-stemware glasses, cups and mugs. The prior art teaches the use of differently configured plates for different types of beverage container. Accordingly, stores would have to provide multiple versions of such plates if they were to accommodate the diverse shapes and sizes of common beverage containers. Similarly, consumers would have to purchase several versions of such plates, each specifically designed for different types of beverage containers. Fast food establishments and cafeterias would similarly have to provide a different food holding receptacle depending on the beverage container chosen by a customer. However, some recent disclosures have addressed the issue of food holding receptacles intended for use with several types of beverage containers. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,609,625, Gibbar describes a drink vessel holder that is supported on a plate; the drink vessel that is held within the drink vessel holder is supported on and by the plate, and the plate is held in the user's hand. Gibbar states (Col. 2, lines 26-28) that “Such a device must be able to accommodate a large variety of drink vessels that are commonly found at parties.” A disadvantage of Gibbar's device is that it requires the hand that is holding the plate to also secure the drink vessel holder to the surface of the plate; alternatively the user must use an adhesive strip to attach the drink vessel holder to the plate. US Pat. Application 20040099670 to Michaeli describes a plate having a peripheral recess with a wall that partly surrounds and supports a beverage container. The wall is made of a flexible material that “is sufficiently flexible to receive and accommodate beverage containers of different diameters” (Abstract). Michaeli states that “beverage containers of most shapes and sizes” (Col. 2, Par. 0025) and “cans, bottles or cups” of a specified diameter (Col. 2, Par. 0026) can be accommodated by the plate of his invention. This design has several deficiencies. Part of the plate must be made from a flexible material. Also, the user grasps both the beverage container and the plate thereby requiring an extra degree of dexterity and care by the user.
The present invention provides a food holding receptacle that is capable of being stably supported on a wide variety of bottles, cans, stemware glasses, non-stemware glasses, cups and mugs, taken one beverage container at a time. A given sample of the present invention is not limited to specific dimensions for the beverage container. In addition to those capabilities some embodiments of the present invention are also capable of stably supporting a variety of bottles, cans, glasses, cups and mugs, taken one beverage container at a time.
The problem of trying to support both a food holding receptacle and a beverage container simultaneously is not limited to the immediate period during which the food and beverage are being consumed. For example, it can be awkward trying to make one's way through a throng of people in a stadium or other packed event while carrying a food holding receptacle and a beverage container simultaneously. The present invention alleviates that problem.